Method for tuning a corner frequency of a low pass filter

ABSTRACT

An integrated circuit formed on a semiconductor chip, comprising a low pass filter circuit having a first resistor of a first resistance value and a capacitor of a first capacitance value, wherein the first resistance value and the first capacitance value determine a corner frequency of the filter; and a tuning circuit having a second resistor of a second resistance value, a switched-capacitor of a third resistance value and a comparator that compares two voltage signals to produce a control signal, wherein the control signal adjusts the first and second resistance values as a function of the third resistance value. The corner frequency of the filter can be adjusted by varying one or more reference voltage signals. In combination, the corner frequency of the filter is adjusted by changing the frequency of a clock that controls the switched-capacitor to decrease the circuit sensitivity.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 09/995,795(published as U.S. Pub. App. No. 2002/0190783 A1), filed Nov. 29, 2001now U.S. Pat No. 6,710,644, entitled “Low Pass Filter Corner FrequencyTuning Circuit And Method,” which claims the benefit of U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 60/250,616 (“the '616 Provisional”), filed Nov. 29,2000, titled “Fully Integrated Direct Conversion Satellite Receiver,”which are both incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

This application is also related to the following U.S. Non-Provisionalapplications, which are all incorporated by reference herein in theirentireties.

U.S. Ser. No. 10/647,588, filed Aug. 26, 2003, which is a divisional ofU.S. Ser. No. 09/995,695 (published as U.S. Pub. App. No. 2003/0045263A1), filed Nov. 29, 2001, entitled “Integrated Direct ConversionSatellite Tuner,” which claimed benefit to the '616 provisional.

U.S. Ser. No. 09/995,690 (published as U.S. Pub. App. No. 2002/0120937A1), filed Nov. 29, 2001, entitled “Apparatus for Reducing Flicker Noisein a Mixer Circuit,” which claimed benefit to the '616 provisional.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is related to semiconductor integrated circuits,and specifically, to an active low pass filter having a tuning circuitto minimize the impact of temperature and process variations.

2. Background Art

Today mixed-signal integrated circuits comprise both analog and digitalcomponents on a single chip. Such mixed-signal integrated circuitsinclude devices such as transistors, capacitors, resistors, inductors,and the like. These devices are coupled together in a plethora of waysto form simple components, such as logic gates, registers and memorycells, as well as more complicated components, including entiremicroprocessors, memory arrays, amplifiers, and the like.

The frequency response of active filters is determined by the values oftheir various resistance-capacitance (RC) elements. Although switches,small-value capacitors, and operational amplifiers can be realized inintegrated circuits using MOS technology, it is very difficult to makeresistors and capacitors with the values and accuracy required bycertain radio frequency (RF) applications.

This integration drawback has been overcome by implementing resistorswith MOS capacitors coupled between MOS switches that are rapidlyswitched on and off. Such devices are called “switched capacitors.”Switched-capacitors can commonly be used in electronic applications torealize a wide variety of active filters that have the advantages ofcompactness and tunability. They are typically used to replace resistorsin active filter circuits. The time constants arising from thesesimulated resistances and other MOS capacitors are based on capacitanceratios. Providing values set by capacitor ratios to control the timeconstants yields on-chip RC components that are less susceptible toerrors due to manufacturing process variations, and temperature changes.However, the usefulness of switched-capacitors with operationalamplifiers circuits is limited. The DC offset voltages plagued bynon-ideal operational amplifiers causes loss of accuracy at lowoperating voltage levels.

What is needed is a switched-capacitor circuit technique for eliminatingthe adverse impact of operational amplifier DC offset voltages.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to an integrated circuit formed on asemiconductor chip comprising a low pass filter circuit and a tuningcircuit. The low pass filter circuit has a first resistor of a firstresistance value and a capacitor of a first capacitance value, whereinthe first resistance value and the first capacitance value determine acorner frequency of the filter.

The tuning circuit has a second resistor of a second resistance value, aswitched-capacitor of a third resistance value and a comparator thatcompares two voltage signals and produces a control signal, wherein thecontrol signal adjusts the first and second resistance values as afunction of the third resistance value.

In one embodiment of the integrated circuit, a first one of the twovoltage signals is coupled to the switched-capacitor and a second one ofthe two voltage signals is coupled to the comparator, wherein theintegrated circuit further comprises means for adjusting the cornerfrequency of the filter by varying at least one of the two voltagesignals.

In another embodiment of the integrated circuit, the integrated circuitincludes a clock to control the switched-capacitor, wherein the cornerfrequency of the filter can be adjusted by varying frequency of theclock.

In yet another embodiment, the corner frequency of the filter can bechanged by adjusting the corner frequency and by adjusting at least oneof the two voltage signals.

These and other advantages and features will become readily apparent inview of the following detailed description of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The features and advantages of the present invention will become moreapparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken inconjunction with the drawings in which like reference numbers indicateidentical or functionally similar elements. Additionally, the left-mostdigit of a reference number identifies the drawing in which thereference number first appears.

FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional low pass filter circuit.

FIG. 2 is a plot illustrating the frequency response of the low passfilter of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates a conventional switched-capacitor circuit.

FIG. 4 illustrates an active low pass filter with a tuning circuit inconnection with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be discussedin detail. While specific features, configurations and arrangements arediscussed, it should be understood that this is done for illustrationpurposes only. A person skilled in the relevant art will recognize thatother steps, configurations and arrangements may be used withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention. Indeed, for thesake of brevity, conventional electronics and other functional aspectsof the method/apparatus (and components of the individual operatingcomponents of the apparatus) may not be described in detail herein.Furthermore, for purposes of brevity, the invention is frequentlydescribed herein as pertaining to satellite tuners. It should beappreciated, however, that many other devices having one or more lowpass filters could be readily modified to included the presentinvention, and thus the techniques described herein could be used inconnection with other such devices. Moreover, it should be understoodthat general references(e.g., “first”, “second”, etc.) made herein arefor purposes of illustration only.

FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional first order RC low-pass filter 100(e.g., an inverting integrator). The filter 100 receives an input signal(V_(IN)) at a resistor 102, which in turn is coupled to an invertinginput of an operational amplifier 104. A non-inverting input of theoperational amplifier 104 is coupled to ground. A capacitor 106 iscoupled between the inverting input of operational amplifier 104 and itsoutput node. The circuit produces an output signal (V_(OUT)). The firstorder RC low-pass filter corner frequency is set by 1/(2π RC).

FIG. 2 illustrates the frequency response of a conventional low-passfilter, which plots magnitude (in decibel “dB” units) versus frequency(f). Any person skilled in the relevant art will be familiar withcircuit 100 and its transfer characteristics, as well as many practicalimplications and uses of such a filter. For example, it is well knownthat the −3 dB point 202 on curve 200 of FIG. 2 represents the “cornerfrequency” or “cutoff frequency” of the low-pass filter (e.g., circuit100). A cutoff frequency (f_(C)), corresponding to the cutoff point 202,is equal to the reciprocal of the product of the 2πRC (i.e., f_(C)=1/(2πRC)).

In the satellite receiver, for example, a low-pass filter (LPF) can beused to select the desired channel. The corner frequency of low-passfilter needs to be programmable from 2 MHz to 36 MHz. The LPF cornerfrequency must be accurately tuned within 1 MHz. However, as noted inthe background section, due to manufacturing process and temperaturevariations between different integrated circuits, manufacturing accurateLPFs comprising integrated resistors and capacitors can be difficult.Moreover, although capacitors having similar structures on a singleintegrated circuit will yield substantially the same capacitance value,that value cannot be controlled tightly enough. Armed with thisknowledge, the present inventors endeavored to develop a circuit toachieve accurate LPF corner frequencies.

One known technique for tuning LPFs is to implement resistor 102 in FIG.1 with a switched-capacitor. A conventional switched-capacitor isillustrated in FIG. 3. The switched-capacitor filter technique is basedon the realization that a capacitor switched between two circuit nodesat a sufficiently high rate is equivalent to a resistor connecting thesetwo nodes. Specifically, the two switches S₁ and S₂ of FIG. 3 are drivenby a non-overlapping, two-phase clock, f_(CLK). It is assumed, for thisexplanation, that the clock frequency f_(CLK) is much higher than thefrequency of the signal being filtered by the circuit 100, assuming thatthe switched-capacitor were used in place of the resistor 102. Duringclock phase φ₁ capacitor C_(S) charges up to a voltage at node 302 byclosing S₁. Then, during a second clock phase φ₂, capacitor C_(S) isconnected to the output node 304 by closing S₂. In a case where outputnode 304 is the non-inverting input of operational amplifier 104 in FIG.1, the capacitor C_(S) is forced to discharge, and its previous chargeis transferred. Thus, if f_(CLK) is much higher than the frequency ofthe voltage wave forms of V_(IN), then the switching process can betaken to be essentially continuous, and a switched-capacitor can then bemodeled as an equivalent resistance as shown below in equation 1:$\begin{matrix}{R_{eq} = \frac{1}{C_{S} \cdot f_{CLK}}} & (1)\end{matrix}$

Therefore, the use of a switched-capacitor in conjunction with thecapacitor 106 in FIG. 1, and the operational amplifier 104 can be usedto achieve an active low-pass filter. As can be seen from Equation 1,use of the switched-capacitor enables the active filter to be “tuned” byvarying the frequency of f_(CLK), which thereby changes the value of Rand the cutoff frequency.

For illustration purposes, FIG. 3 includes an inverter 306 that invertsf_(CLK) to generate the opposite phase clock 100 ₂. Any person skilledin the relevant art will recognize that the non-overlapping clocks φ₁and φ₂ can be produced in many ways. Moreover, switches S₁ and S₂ can beimplemented with transistors (for example, metal oxide semiconductorfield affect transistors (MOSFETs), or the like). Additionally, variousmeans are commercially available for generating the clock frequency.Voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs), for example, include a controlinput to adjust the oscillation frequency. Background on active low-passfilters and switched-capacitors is found in “Microelectronic Circuits,”A. S. Sedra et al.(Holt, Reinhart and Winston publishers, 1987), and“Applications of the Switched-Capacitor Circuits in Active Filters andInstrumentation Amplifiers,” W. R. Grise (The Technology Interface Vol.3, No. 3, Fall 1999, ISSN No. 1523-9926).

Turning now to the present invention, FIG. 4 illustrates an activelow-pass filter and comparator circuit for achieving accurate filteringon an integrated circuit. In order to overcome manufacturing processvariations and errors introduced by temperature variations, theinventors have combined an active low-pass filter 402 (e.g., aninverting integrator) with a tuning circuit 404 in order to accuratelyadjust the corner frequency of the low-pass filter 402. In general, thetuning circuit 404 generates a control signal 406 to adjust two variableresistors (416 (e.g., resistor R_(ADJ))and 420 (e.g., resistor R).Variable resistor 416 in the tuning circuit 404 and variable resistor420 in the active low-pass filter 402 are identical and are adjusted bycontrol signal 406 as a function of the equivalent resistance of aswitched-capacitor 408 and the VADJ/VREF ratio that determines thecorner frequency of the low-pass filter 402.

Specifically, tuning circuit 404 comprises switched capacitor 408, anamplifier 410, a comparator 412 (e.g., an operational amplifier), asuccessive approximation register (SAR) architecture analog-to-digitalconverter 414 and a variable resistor 416. An adjustable voltage (VADJ)is applied to an input of the switched-capacitor 408. An output ofswitched-capacitor 408 is coupled to an inverting input of amplifier410. A non-inverting input of amplifier 410 is coupled to ground. Anoutput of amplifier 410 is coupled to an inverting input of a comparator412.

A reference voltage (V_(REF)) is coupled to a non-inverting input ofcomparator 412. An output of comparator 412 is coupled to an input ofA/D converter 414. The A/D converter 414 produces the control signal406, which is described in further detail below. The variable, orotherwise adjustable resistor (R_(ADJ)) 416 is coupled between theinverting input of amplifier 410 and its output (which is also theinverting input of comparator 412). Control signal 406 is also coupledto R_(ADJ) 416 to change its resistance value.

The active low-pass filter (LPF) 402 comprises a variable resistor 420,a capacitor 422 and an amplifier 424 (e.g., an operational amplifier). Asignal to be filtered is applied to a first node label VIN, which iscoupled to resistor 420. Resistor 420 also coupled to the invertinginput of amplifier 424. A non-inverting input of amplifier 424 iscoupled to ground. Capacitor 422 is coupled across the inverting inputof amplifier 424 and its output node, which is labeled as VOUT. Variableresistor 420 also receives control signal 406 to change its resistancevalue.

Operation of the tuning circuit 404 in FIG. 4 will be described next. Toillustrate the operation of tuning circuit 404, assume voltages VADJ andVREF are kept constant. Also, for this explanation, assume comparator412 and A/D converter 414 simply comprise a comparator 430 that producesthe control signal 406 to adjust resistor 416. In this case, thecomparator 430 will produce a control signal 406 to adjust resistor 416to match the value of resistor 408 until the output voltage of amplifier410 is equal to VREF. Thus, once the voltage levels at the input ofcomparator 430 are the same, control signal 406 will no longer changethe resistance of resistor 416.

In order to establish accurate corner frequencies for active low-passfilter 402, the product of the resistance value for resistor 420 and thenominal capacitance value for capacitor 422 must be accurate. Since astable capacitance value can be achieved using existing semiconductormanufacturing techniques, an initial capacitance value for capacitor 422can be determined. However, because of processing variations andtemperature variations, the exact capacitance of the capacitor can varyfrom chip to chip. Because the capacitance would vary from chip to chip,even though an accurate fixed resistance value for the resistor 420 isprovided, the corner frequency will also vary, as described above.

The exact corner frequency, however, can be achieved by varying theresistance of resistor 420 to an exact resistance value equal to1/(2π·f_(C)·C), where fc is the corner frequency of the low-pass filter.This can be achieved using a switch-capacitor circuit 408.

According to the present invention, a capacitance value and switchingfrequency value are selected for switching-capacitor 408 in order toachieve the exact desired resistance for the active low-pass filter 402.In operation, since the ideal comparator 430 produces control signal 406so as to cause the resistance of variable resistor 416 to match theresistance of switch capacitor 408, control signal 406 is also suppliedto variable resistor 420. Thus, by achieving a desired equivalentresistance at switched capacitor 408, the tuning circuit 404, viacomparator 430, will produce a control signal 406 so as to causeresistor 420 of the active low pass filter 402 to produce a resistancevalue for resistor 420 equal to the affective resistance ofswitch-capacitor 408 equal to 1/(f_(CLK)·C_(SC)), where fc_(LK) is theswitching frequency and C_(SC) is the capacitance value of the C_(S) inFIG. 5. Equating this resistance value to 1/(2π·f_(C)·C) in order to getthe desired accurate corner frequency of the low-pass filter will bedescribed later. In summary, the resistance of variable resistors 416and 420 is adjusted via the control signal 406 until the desired valuefor the LPF corner frequency is achieved.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, adjusting f_(CLK)of the switched capacitor 408 will change its resistance. To compensate,comparator 430 adjusts control signal 406 to change the value ofresistor 420, thereby changing the LPF corner frequency of the activelow-pass filter 402.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, control signal406 is changed by adjusting a ratio “K” of voltages V_(ADJ) and V_(REF)(i.e., K=V_(ADJ)/V_(REF)), while f_(CLK) remains constant:$\begin{matrix}{R = \frac{1}{{C_{SC} \cdot f_{CL}}K}} & (2)\end{matrix}$

Changing the ratio “K” causes the differential voltage at the input ofcomparator 430 to change. To compensate, the comparator 430 changescontrol signal 406 so as to vary the resistance of adjustable resistorR_(ADJ) 416, thereby causing the voltage at its inverting input to againmatch the voltage at its non-inverting input. At the same time controlsignal 406 adjusts the resistance of resistor 416 to compensate for thechanged voltage ratio, control signal 406 also changes the resistance ofresistor 420 thereby changing the corner frequency of the activelow-pass filter 402. In order to tune the corner frequency of thelow-pass filter from 2 MHz to 36 MHz, K is varied from 1 to 18respectively in this design. However, in order to make the designinsensitive to errors produced by the non-idealities of the switchcapacitor circuit 408 and the operational amplifier 410, high values ofK are desired. By dividing f_(CL)K for lower-half corner frequencies, Kis circulated from 8 to 18 instead of changing from 1 to 18. Thistechnique improves the circuit sensitivity for corner frequencies from 2MHz to 15 MHz. The sensitivity is further improved by reducing theoffset voltage of the operational amplifier 410 and the comparator 412by employing an offset-cancellation scheme in the comparator 412.

Also, according to this latter embodiment of the present invention, theratio of voltages V_(ADJ) and V_(REF) can be changed by changing eitherV_(ADJ) or V_(REF), or both V_(ADJ) and V_(REF). Preferably, V_(REF) canbe set to a constant reference voltage, while voltage V_(ADJ) isadjusted so as to change the corner frequency of the active low-passfilter 402. The voltages V_(ADJ) and V_(REF) can be implemented using aresistor ladder with variable tap points. Other voltage sources can beused to provide V_(ADJ) and V_(REF), as would become apparent to aperson skilled in the relevant art.

The switch capacitance CSC can be implemented as a NMOS-in-NWELLcapacitor, similar to the capacitor 422 in the low-pass filter 402. Forthis design, fCLK is equal to 16 MHz, and the value of CSC is scaled tobe (πC)/4 in order for R in Equation 2 to be equal to 1/(2π fc C). As aresult, the desired accurate corner frequency of the low-pass filter 402will be established.

Variable resistors 416 and 420 can be implemented in a variety of ways.Each can comprise a bank of selectable resistors, for example. Otherequivalent resistor networks will become apparent to a person skilled inthe relevant art.

Control signal 406 can be a digital signal so as to select one or moreof the individual resistors in each respective resistor bank. In orderto produce a digital control signal 406, comparator 430 can comprise acomparator 412 coupled to A/D converter 414. Other equivalent circuitsto implement the functionality of comparator 430 for generating controlsignal 406 will become apparent to a person skilled in the relevant art.

In the case in which operational amplifier 412 is employed, theinventors have also discovered that the DC offset voltage of theoperational amplifier produces undesirable characteristics at low VADJvoltage. To compensate for this, fCLK can be adjusted until the desiredvalue for the LPF 402 corner frequency f_(c) is achieved.

CONCLUSION

While various embodiments of the present invention have been describedabove, it should be understood that they have been presented by way ofexample, and not limitation. It will be apparent to persons skilled inthe relevant art that various changes in form and detail can be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.This is especially true in light of technology and terms within therelevant art(s) that may be later developed.

The present invention has been described above with the aid offunctional building blocks or modules (see 416, 420 and 430, forexample) illustrating the performance of specified functions andrelationships thereof. The boundaries of these functional buildingblocks have been defined herein for the convenience of the description.Alternate boundaries can be defined so long as the specified functionsand relationships thereof are appropriately performed. Any suchalternate boundaries are thus within the scope and spirit of the claimedinvention. One skilled in the art will recognize that these functionalbuilding blocks can be implemented by discrete components, applicationspecific integrated circuits, processors executing appropriate softwareand the like or any combination thereof. Thus, the breadth and scope ofthe present invention should not be limited by any of theabove-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only inaccordance with the following claims and their equivalents.

1. A method, comprising: (a) forming a filter through coupling a firstresistor having a first resistance value and a capacitor having a firstcapacitance value; (b) setting a corner frequency of the filter usingthe first resistance value and the first capacitance value; and (c)forming a tuning device through coupling a second resistor having asecond resistance value, a switched-capacitor having a third resistancevalue, and a comparator having an amplifier and an analog-to-digitalconverter; and (d) comparing voltage signals using the comparator toproduce a control signal that adjusts the first and second resistancevalues as a function of the third resistance value.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: receiving a first one of the voltagesignals from the switched-capacitor; receiving a second one of thevoltage signals from a reference source; and adjusting the cornerfrequency of the filter through varying at least one of the first andsecond voltage signals.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:using a clock to control the switched-capacitor, such that varyingfrequency of the clock adjusts the corner frequency.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: receiving a first one of the voltagesignals from the switched-capacitor; receiving a second one of thevoltage signals from a reference source; using a frequency of a clock tocontrol the switched-capacitor; and changing at least one of the firstand second voltage signals or changing the frequency of the clock toadjust the corner frequency of the filter.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein step (a) further comprises coupling a second amplifier to theresistor and the capacitor to form the filter.
 6. The method of claim 5,wherein step (a) further comprises configuring the second amplifier asan inverting integrator.
 7. The method of claim 5, wherein step (a)further comprises using an operational amplifier as the secondamplifier.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein step (d) further comprisesusing the control signal to substantially simultaneously adjust thefirst and second resistance values.
 9. The method of claim 8, whereinstep (d) further comprises adjusting the first and second resistancevalues, such that the first and second resistance values aresubstantially equal.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) furthercomprises using an operational amplifier as the amplifier.
 11. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: coupling together a firstplurality of selectable resistors to form the first resistor; couplingtogether a second plurality of selectable resistors to form the secondresistor; using a digital value as the control signal; and adjusting thefirst and second resistance values by selecting at least one particularresistor in each of the first and second plurality of selectableresistors.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) furthercomprises: providing a second amplifier in the tuning device; coupling anon-inverting input of the second amplifier to ground; coupling anoutput of the second amplifier to the comparator; coupling theswitched-capacitor between a first one of the voltage signals and theinverting input of the second amplifier; and coupling the secondresistor between the inverting input and the output of the secondamplifier.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein step (c) furthercomprises using an operational amplifier as the second amplifier.